David

Then David ordered Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David himself walked behind the funeral bier.

Then all the people came and urged David to eat something while it was still day, but David took an oath, saying, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!”

They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who sought your life. Today the LORD has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”

But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

So David commanded his young men, and they killed Rechab and Baanah. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies by the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in Abner’s tomb in Hebron.

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, where King David made with them a covenant before the LORD. And they anointed him king over Israel.

David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.

Now the king and his men marched to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the land. The Jebusites said to David: “You will never get in here. Even the blind and lame can repel you.” For they thought, “David cannot get in here.”

Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).

On that day he said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must use the water shaft to reach the lame and blind who are despised by David.” That is why it is said, “The blind and the lame will never enter the palace.”

So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

And David became greater and greater, for the LORD God of Hosts was with him.

Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.

And David realized that the LORD had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.

After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they all went in search of him; but David learned of this and went down to the stronghold.

So David inquired of the LORD, “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” “Go,” replied the LORD, “for I will surely deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the LORD has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.

There the Philistines abandoned their idols, and David and his men carried them away.

So David inquired of the LORD, who answered, “Do not march straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees.

So David did as the LORD had commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

David again assembled the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand in all.

And he and all his troops set out for Baale of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name— the name of the LORD of Hosts, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on it.

David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of wood instruments, harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.